Free Comic Book Day to be held Saturday

ByStaff reports

Courtesy photo

"The Walking Dead" is just one of many titles available during Free Comic Book Day on Saturday.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Saturday is the 11th annual Free Comic Book Day, when many independent comic stores across North America give out free comics to bring new readers to the medium, as well as improve literacy in young readers. Locally, South Charleston's Lost Legion Games & Comics/The Rifleman will participate.

Owner David Whelan said, "We order piles of special Free Comic Book Day comics to give out to anyone who comes to the store on that day. We have titles from all sorts of different genres, publishers and characters."

This year's offerings include comics featuring The Avengers, The Walking Dead, Spider-Man, Superman, the Justice League, Archie, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, My Little Pony, SpongeBob and The Smurfs. A list of all 52 titles can be found at www.freecomicbookday.com.

There's also a "Star Wars" comic, which is fitting because Saturday is Star Wars Day. ("May the 4th be with you all," Whelan said.)

Additionally, Lost Legion will have special sales, board game demonstrations, costume contests for kids and adults and appearances by Danny Boyd and Jason Pell, who will be signing copies of their latest works.

The costume contest is comic book-related costumes, which, "since there are comics for everything, that's pretty much every possible costume," Whelan said.

Activities start at noon and run all day. Raffles will be drawn after the event. Costume contestants will be photographed and the winners selected afterward, as well.

Lost Legion is located at 600 D St., Charleston. Call 304-205-7919 or find the store on Facebook.